September saw one of my biggest single monthly dividend incomes. October has followed a similar trend with another £130 total--it is my fourth biggest monthly haul ever.

This month sees another diverse set of companies passing cash back to me. Healthcare, banks, industrial services, insurers, consumer products and beverages companies all make an appearance. This sort of income diversity is really nice to see.

Rather nicely I have also managed to add quite a nice amount of additional shares with this months income. Of the 7 companies that paid a dividend, I was able to with every one except for Amlin (modestly) increase my holdings in them with the proceeds.

Historic Performance Comparisons

So, how does October 2015 compare to October 2014? Very well indeed! Last year I managed to pull in £40.26. This means that I am sitting on an income about 325% larger than this time last year. Excellent progress.

October also marks the start of the final quarter of 2015. And what start! Already it is the fifth largest quarter I have ever had. It bodes well for a solid performance as we head towards the end of the year. Although November and December are--usually--weaker months. I should easily be able to sail ahead of the total for Q4 2014 (£171.24).

This Month and My Annual Goals

So how does October look in relation to my annual goals? Let's take a look:

Total Dividend Income: October's significant dividend income means I have made yet another hefty leap towards my 2015 dividend goal of £1100. So how close am I to my target now? Well, with this month's cash I am now at a total of £968.20 for the year. This leaves me at an excellent 88.02% towards my total after 10 months:

Monthly Average Income: Last month--after a couple of weaker months--I managed to pull my monthly average income back up to £92.95. This, as I noted at the time, would get me across my target line if it was maintained.

The strength of October's income has helped drag my average higher still to £96.82.

This is a brilliant figure. If I could retain this throughout the rest of the year I would have an annual income of over £1160. As such, I am currently modestly ahead of my target income for the year.

This will be handy as, as I mentioned above, November and December will likely be weaker months. November already has all dividends declared and is likely to just come in above £50. December is stronger but I certainly needed to be ahead of schedule at this stage to get me across the the £1100 line.

Monthly Expenses: July through September were, as I mentioned last month, very hard expenses wise. Fortunately, October sees me back on track.

Me and Miss DD went to the wedding in Ireland earlier this month. Many expenses for this hit this month again. However, fortunately, cost-cutting elsewhere as well as a lot of the costs already being paid meant that I am back down to a better figure.

My expenses for this month came out at £775.21 (much lower than the £900+ months of late). To be honest, I am pretty chuffed with this.

Again, £200 of this came from holiday-related expenses. I was actually pretty surprised when this sub-£800 figure came out and had to check it twice.

Rather pleasingly this lower total also means that I am--once again--running below last years monthly average of £845. Thanks to October's more modest total I am back down to an average of £841.64 per month. Hopefully this will keep dropping!

Work Freedom Day: And what about my Work Freedom Day? How many days have I bought myself for this year? Thanks to a combination of higher dividend income and lower expenses I have pulled in an additional 6 days (you read that right)! My dividend income now gets me up to 4 February 2015.

Obviously this still leaves me 6 days adrift for reaching my target of 10 February 2015 by the end of the year! I noted last month that this goal was looking increasingly challenging.

I suspect that if I am going to reach that goal I am going to have to see a sharp drop in my average monthly expenses as I don't think my predicted income alone will pull me passed that target (though I will be close).

Portfolio Additions

October has been a very modest month with regards to activity with only one purchase:

Charity

This month has seen an additional £2.66 added to my charitable microfinance account. This means that 2015's dividend income has resulted in £30.52 dropping into that account so far. This is a hefty £24.85 ahead of last years total.

How did you do?

How did your dividend income look for October? What new holdings did you pick up or old ones topped up?

14 comments:

Looks like a great month. Lots of companies that are foreign to me but I track mainly US stocks so it's not too surprising. One I'd really like to get a hold of though is DEO. Great business! Just over 1 month of freedom is bought. That's a great feeling isn't it?

Yes, most will probably not be that familiar. That being said, I am currently building up my US exposure at the moment so there will probably be more familiar names going forward!

Yes, Diageo is a superb business. I am glad I have managed to build up my stake in them over the last year and a bit. I hope they head back down again soon to below 1800p so I can, hopefully, add more. There is still a little more space for it in my portfolio at the moment!

It is a great feeling to have one month "paid for". Progress has slowed of late. But hopefully it will not be long before we are trucking along at a solid pace again!

I am very glad I managed to get the expenses back down a bit this month. It was starting to get a little hair-raising! I should--hopefully--hit all my goals for the year which is great as I set them quite ambitiously! Crossed fingers!

I am sure you will sometime soon. There are some nice looking dividend investments out there which I wish I could take advantage of right now!

Yes, an excellent month both for income and expenses for me! The travel expenses over the last few months I am happy with in general. It was a great trip. Really very much enjoyed it. Just can't do another for some time now!

Glad to hear you had a low expenses month as well. My October has always been a "stronger" month than most, it must be said. No doubt some of your fresh investments in the future will make future October's look a lot more generous!

Yes, I recently added a little stake in Visa. Have not written up my reasoning yet. I have been watching it for some time. I am currently looking at a possible disposure of a current holding as I am having doubts about its near-term future. Perhaps more anon!

This is some nice income you have yourself there. It looks like you really have a number of stocks in the portfolio. Have you looked at going with any market index funds? I would worry you are going to get eating up with fees purchasing 33 separate stocks!

Thanks, Derek. Yes, it was a pretty nice amount to pull in for a single month. Hopefully many more to come!

I have a few market index funds also in my portfolio (see under "Holdings") which I am using to compare my returns from both methods of investing.

I am also in the process of reducing my fees incurred which is going well so far. In future, I expect my purchase fees to be much lower and--of course--my holding fees are 0% as they are individual holdings!

Nice seeing that passive income roll in. Happy to see a fellow DEO shareholder too. I would love to add to that name but not at current levels. That stock seems to never go on sale. Thanks for sharing and look forward to seeing you how close out 2015.

Thanks, DH! I was pretty glad with the month's progress. Hopefully I can keep it up in the future. Looking good so far. Will have to wait and see though!

Diageo is very attractive. I managed to wait for them when they were reasonably priced. As you say, they are never really on sale! Would happily top up again if the opportunity arose! Just have to wait for the opportunity!